Brooklyn Garden featured in Leaf magazine

My Brooklyn garden–still very much a work in progress–is featured in the Spring issue of Leaf magazine. Click on the Leaf cover above to read and subscribe to Leaf. Click on any images below to enlarge them.

16 thoughts on “Brooklyn Garden featured in Leaf magazine”

I’ve just been reading it. I subscribe to ‘dirt du jour’ who mentioned Leaf magazine and there you were. I guess they were spot on as they state the Conservancy open days for Fed Twist followed by ‘the Brooklyn garden remains private and secluded’. Exactly.

Rob, merely a rhetorical turn to bring it to an end. You’re welcome whenever you come to hip and happening Brooklyn. I was happy Susan mentioned the Open Days dates. And it was nice to see the Garden Conservancy’s ad for Open Days immediately following. Now I have to find ‘dirt du jour’. Hope it’s not in French.

I have looked at and studied both of your gardens in such detail online that I instantly recognized the Brooklyn space in the magazine. I was not reading the words, just leafing through (leafing thru Leaf. . . ) and I saw the photos and immediately knew it was your garden, and your own photos too.

I love how very different the country garden and the city garden are, but they both have your designer imprint that stresses imposed structure and easy flow. How great that your private garden was featured!

I tried out the fountain bubbler, then removed it. I find I much prefer the subtle shimmer of the still water moved by breezes. But I do admit it makes for a better photograph, so will keep it in reserve. The Gleditsia I took so much trouble to find are doing well, though they need stronger trunks to support the canopies that want to develop. I had to cut them back several times. I’ll work to grow taller before spreading out.

Thanks, Wanda. I was fortunate Hurricane Irene took that giant tree down (at a removal cost of $8500). We never would have made that costly decision voluntarily. It was good to work from a blank slate. I don’t think this garden will begin to look as intended for at least two years, but this is a nice record to have. And having it publicly “exposed” so to speak, drives my decision making process in a new way.

Thank you very much, Allan. I, of course, see the flaws and look forward to two years in the future when it’s more finished, the walls are covered with vines, and the trees have grown into, well, trees.

Thanks. The planting is only about ten months old and will be changing significantly this spring, depending on what survived and what I can afford. I took your advice and mulched the hell out of my Tetrapanax ‘Steroidal Giant’.

James, first, congratulations. It’s funny how gardens are never finished. The moment we’ve turned our backs on them we find there’s another bit, or another sweep that needs tweaking. That’s part of the fun, isn’t it? I’ve heard of painters who never finish a picture, always seeing just one more thing…

Yes, Faisal. There’s the conceptual goal of finishing, but it’s an illusion. The garden really is a collection of living organisms (some are invisible, under the soil) in some kind of structured environment, no matter how naturalistic, and living things change continuously.